PHOENIX -- Curt Schilling sat frozen in the dugout.

Randy Johnson, not far away, couldn't believe his eyes.

Luis Gonzalez celebrates as his RBI single scores Jay Bell with the game-winning run.(AP)

Arizona fans, stunned and silent moments earlier, were on their feet, screaming and hoping for one more twist in an incredible World Series.

Boy, did they get one.

Luis Gonzalez hit an RBI single to cap a two-run rally off Mariano Rivera in the bottom of the ninth, and the Diamondbacks won their first championship by beating the New York Yankees 3-2 in Game 7 Sunday night -- one of the greatest comebacks of all time.

"I wouldn't move on the bench. I wanted to get up and watch for the whole inning, but I was playing the luck seat," said Schilling, who shared the MVP award with Johnson.

"It seemed pretty surreal to me, watching this all develop," Johnson said.

The Yankees were only two outs from their fourth consecutive championship and fifth in six years when it suddenly fell apart.

Tony Womack tied it with an RBI double and Craig Counsell was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out. Gonzalez, choking up on the bat for the first time this year, blooped a soft single to center field.

"When you're a little kid, you think about the seventh game of the World Series," Gonzalez said. "It didn't matter how the hit came."

Rivera, who had saved 23 straight postseason games, could do nothing but watch the ball fall in to end the Yankees' run.

"That's baseball," Rivera said. "There's nothing I can do about it."

The Yankees were trying to become the third team in history to win four titles in a row. The Bronx Bombers did it from 1936-39 and from 1949-53.

"We're obviously disappointed in the result, but not the effort," Yankees manager Joe Torre said.

When the Yankees were close to winning, some people started setting up the clubhouse for a celebration. Owner George Steinbrenner threw them out.

"I'm proud of my team. We played our hearts out. It was a very tough loss. I will be a gracious loser," he said. "We'll be back. Mark that down. We'll be back.

"I'm not a good loser," he said.

What began as a November duel between Schilling and Roger Clemens climaxed with the Diamondbacks winning the title in just their fourth year of existence.

It was the fastest rise in history, breaking the mark of five years set by the 1997 Marlins. That Florida team was the last to win when trailing in the ninth inning of a Game 7, doing it against Cleveland.

The Diamondbacks bounced back from two of the toughest losses in Series history. They dropped Games 4 and 5 at Yankee Stadium, blowing two-run leads in the bottom of the ninth both times.

Johnson, at 38, earned the victory in relief. He also won Game 6 Saturday night, a 15-2 romp.

Johnson was 3-0, making him the first pitcher to win three times in a Series since Detroit's Mickey Lolich in 1968. The Big Unit won five times in this postseason.

Johnson, Schilling and several Arizona old-timers, including Gonzalez, Mark Grace, Matt Williams and Mike Morgan, won their first championship ring.

"We went through sports' greatest dynasty to win our first World Series," Schilling said.

Arizona's Bob Brenly became the first manager to win the championship in his first year since Ralph Houk did it with the Yankees in 1961.

"I felt that we outplayed them," Brenly said.

The Diamondbacks outscored New York 37-14 in the Series in which the home team won every game, just the third time that has ever happened.

The Yankees, the team that would not give up, nearly won it for the city that would not give in. A highly motivated bunch, they showed extra resolve after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York.

Danny Bautista blasts an RBI double to give the Diamondbacks their first run in Game 7.(AP)

"That was the greatest Game 7 ever," said New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who went to the Diamondbacks locker room to offer his congratulations them. "As a Yankees fan, I wish it turned out differently."

The Yankees were a home run swing away from elimination in the first round against Oakland, and lost the first two games at Bank One Ballpark.

But back in the desert, they looked lost.

Alfonso Soriano's solo homer off Schilling put New York ahead 2-1 in the eighth. Rivera, the most dominant reliever in postseason history, set down the Diamondbacks in the bottom half.

Then in the ninth, Arizona rallied.

Grace led off with a single and Rivera threw away Damian Miller's bunt for an error, putting runners at first and second.

Jay Bell bunted into a force play at third, but Womack lined a tying double to the right-field corner. Counsell, who scored the winning run in Game 7 with Florida in 1997, was hit by a pitch.

With the infield in, Gonzalez hit it hard enough for a game-winning single that set off fireworks, pounding music and deafening cheers.

The on-field trophy celebration was still going more than an hour later.

Rivera had pitched six scoreless innings in the Series before Arizona won.

"That was the one guy we wanted to stay away from the whole World Series," Gonzalez said. "We got him the one time it counted."

The Yankees fell to 5-6 overall in deciding Game 7s of the Series.

Derek Jeter was among the frustrated batters to come up empty against Curt Schilling.(AP)

Schilling was nearly untouchable at the start. The first pitcher to start three games in a Series since Minnesota's Jack Morris in 1991, he once again showed no ill effects from working on three days' rest.

Schilling allowed only one hitter to reach through six innings, and even that guy did not last long on the bases. Paul O'Neill, playing his final game before retiring at 38, was thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple in the first.

But given a 1-0 lead in the sixth on Danny Bautista's RBI double, Schilling gave it back.

Schilling retired 16 consecutive hitters before slumping Derek Jeter led off with a single and O'Neill followed with a single in front of center fielder Steve Finley.

One out later, Tino Martinez tied it with an RBI single.

Clemens, pitching the biggest game of his great career, worked out of several early jams. The Diamondbacks caught up to him in the sixth after Finley led off with a single.

Bautista was next, and many people thought the man with five RBI in Saturday's 15-2 romp would bunt. Brenly once again crossed up his critics and let Bautista swing away, and it worked.

Bautista hit a drive into the left-center gap, and Clemens simply stood on the mound with his right hand on hip, watching the play unfold.

Clemens was pulled after 6 1/3 innings with 10 strikeouts. He left without a Game 7 victory, the only thing missing on his Hall of Fame resume.

Notes

• Yankees outfielder David Justice played in the previous two Game 7s and lost both times, with Atlanta in 1991 and Cleveland in 1997. He singled as a pinch-hitter in the eighth.
• All 50 players on the rosters appeared in at least one Series game.
• The other two all-home victory Series were both won by Minnesota, 1987 and 1991.

AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service

Copyright 2001, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved